Tories: ‘Half of London homes would be eligible for inheritance tax under Labour’

Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell at the 2016 Labour Party Conference in Liverpool. Photo: Rwendland

Labour’s plans to lower the threshold at which estates become subject to inheritance tax have been branded “dangerously nonsensical” by Treasury Minister Jane Ellison who claims the party would level the tax on “half” of all London homes.

On Wednesday John McDonnell, Labour’s Shadow chancellor, said the party would be “reversing” what he described as tax “giveaways” which favour better off households and families if Labour wins next month’s General Election.

The Evening Standard reports that this would include reducing the inheritance tax threshold from its current £850,000 level to £425,000.

With official statistics showing the average London home is worth £430,000, the Tories say more than half would be eligible for the tax under Labour.

Ellison, who is defending her Battersea seat, said: “This is another dangerously nonsensical idea from Jeremy Corbyn and the man he wants to run the economy.

“Their obsession with raising taxes would leave half of London homes facing huge Inheritance Tax bills – hitting hundreds of thousands of ordinary working families in the capital.”